applied sciences Review Biomedical Applications of Polymeric Cryogels Monireh Bakhshpour 1, Neslihan Idil 2, I¸sıkPerçin 2 and Adil Denizli 1,* 1 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Hacettepe University, Ankara 06800, Turkey;
[email protected] 2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Hacettepe University, Ankara 06800, Turkey;
[email protected] (N.I.);
[email protected] (I.P.) * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +90-312-297-7983 Received: 31 December 2018; Accepted: 4 February 2019; Published: 7 February 2019 Featured Application: This study presents the comprehensive applications of polymeric cryogels in the field of biomedicine. To the best of our knowledge, this review is one of the most pioneering paper comparatively explains the biomedical applications of cryogels in detail. Abstract: The application of interconnected supermacroporous cryogels as support matrices for the purification, separation and immobilization of whole cells and different biological macromolecules has been well reported in literature. Cryogels have advantages over traditional gel carriers in the field of biochromatography and related biomedical applications. These matrices nearly mimic the three-dimensional structure of native tissue extracellular matrix. In addition, mechanical, osmotic and chemical stability of cryogels make them attractive polymeric materials for the construction of scaffolds in tissue engineering applications and in vitro cell culture, separation materials for many different processes such as immobilization of biomolecules, capturing of target molecules, and controlled drug delivery. The low mass transfer resistance of cryogel matrices makes them useful in chromatographic applications with the immobilization of different affinity ligands to these materials. Cryogels have been introduced as gel matrices prepared using partially frozen monomer or polymer solutions at temperature below zero.